Is it true that milk has pus in it?

Question

If so how does it get there.

Answer 1

Yes
BACTERIA

Cow's milk is allowed to have feces in it. This is a major source for bacteria. Milk is typically pasteurized more than once before it gets to your table... each time for only 15 seconds at 162 degrees Fahrenheit.

To sanitize water one is told to boil it (212 degrees F) for several minutes. That is a tremendous disparity, isn't it!

Keep in mind that at room temperature the number of bacteria in milk DOUBLE around every 20 minutes. No wonder milk turns rotten very quickly.

PUS

ONE cubic centimeter (cc) of commercial cow's milk is allowed to have up to 750,000 somatic cells (common name is "PUS") and 20,000 live bacteria... before it is kept off the market.

That amounts to a whopping 20 million live squiggly bacteria and up to 750 MILLION pus cells per liter (bit more than a quart).

1 cup = 236.5882cc 177,441,150 pus cells ~ 4,731,600 bacteria
24 oz (3 glasses) = 532,323,450 pus cells ~ 14,220,000 bacteria
(the "recommended" daily intake)

The EU and the Canadians allow for a less "tasty" 400,000,000 pus cells per liter.

Typically these levels are lower... but they COULD reach these levels and still get to YOUR table.

Answer 2

Wow, didn't know about the pus. I'm even MORE glad I drink rice milk instead of cow's milk! BTW, I wonder if this is so with any animal, so that goat's milk might have the same issue? Well, anyway, at least there's no pus in rice to the best of my knowledge. (I'm not letting out the possibility of mouse turds and other nasty processing artifacts like that, though. I don't think there's any way to completely eliminate them in mass production.)

Answer 3

Yes, it's absolutely true that milk has pus. Cows get mastitis, and the infections from their teats passes down to us in the milk. It may be pasteurized, but still, the dead white cells are still there. Disgusting! Not only that, the antibiotics are there. WHY in the world would dairy farmers give infected cows ANY antibiotics if they didn't intend to sell the milk they produce? They know they're gonna sell that nasty sh*t, so the antibiotics are there to cover their asses. To say that the dairy idustry doesn't sell this milk is practicing faith in the kindness of the hearts of these farmers, which is FOOLISH. Downright stupid.

Drinking milk from other animals is ARROGANT to the max! Cow's milk isn't meant for us, it never was. It's meant for baby cows. DUHH!!! If it's gross to drink pig's milk, it's just as gross to drink cow's milk, or sheep's milk, or goat's milk, or cheeses/yoghurts made from these milks. What the hell is the difference between cows/sheep/goat and pig? To all milk drinkers, I dare you to drink pig milk. Go on, do it. Drink kangaroo milk too, and cat milk. You can milk a cat like Ben Stiller's character said he did in Meet The Parents (lol!). Oh yeah, and there's primate milk too, go for it. I dare you to eat pus and scabs too.

Yes, all dairy has pus in it. And it's homogenized, so it's not one or two spots in the milk but it's mixed throughout. There's no hope in buying milk that not have pus, 'cause ALL of it has pus.

Whether it's infectious or not, I certainly won't put pus past my lips. No friggin' way.

Answer 4

No.

Pus is, essentially, dead white blood cells and bacteria. When bacteria get into the body your body sends white cells over to deal with them, and the bacteria, and the dead combatants form pus.

Milk doesn't contain pus, although this is a very common myth, but still most scientists would say milk containing pus isn't true (because it isn't).
It might, in fairness, contain pus if the cow had inflamed or diseased udders, but they do not sell you milk from such cows because of health and safety. So for all intents and purposes it doesn't.

Milk contains white blood cells, which are dead after pasteurisation. This is not the same as pus. Those white cells are in there in the first place as it is a means of a mother helping the immunity of the child it's milk is intended for. This is where the myth comes from however, although again I stress just because there are dead white blood cells, which are completely harmless, that doesn't mean it has pus.


Vegan and Proud seems to have been won over by these myths, which again are common, and propagated by Peta.
For one thing, he continually refers to 'pus cells'. Anyone who knows anything of biology should know that there are no such things. They are white blood cells, and that it neither dangerous nor the same thing.
He actually says somatic cells, but I wonder if he knows what this means. A somatic cell is pretty much any mammalian cell: whether that be skin, tissue or organs. By his definition of somatic cells being pus, we are almost nothing but puss. The cells in milk are white blood cells which, yes, are somatic cells, big deal.

As for his other points, milk is pasteurised for only 15 seconds, long enough by far to kill all the bacteria incidentally, is because any longer at such a high temperatures and it would begin to lose it's properties cease to be the milk we know and love.
We all know milk goes off quickly, which is why you refrigerate it and don't leave it out for any length of time.

You cannot get rid of bacteria from any food, least of all live products like milk or yogurt. Most of the bacteria in milk are harmless, and as it is very rare for anyone to get ill from bacteria in pasteurised milk -assuming it is not past its date and has been stored properly - we can safely say milk is not dangerous to drink. Pasteurisation kills the vast majority of harmful bacteria, and even non pasteurised is quite safe.

Milksucks is a Peta run website, the propaganda wing of the vegetarian movement. Most of the stuff on there has been disproved, and who would trust Peta anyway? ( http://www.petakillsanimals.com/ )

More info here: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=497170

Answer 5

Yes. Overmilked dairy cows, pretty much all of them, get mastitis, an infection of the utters. They are given antibiotics which also get into the milk with the pus from the infection. The USDA actually has a set limit on how much of it can be in a gallon. Pretty gross that they set a limit on that insteading of banning it.

Answer 6

most dairy farms have more pus and stuff like that in the milk then the recomened amount by the health department. the machines they put up to the dairy cow's utters cut and scrape their utters so....yeah....i'm sure you can kinda figure out what else is somtimes in there. yuck!!!!!!
go to milksucks.com.

don't be a milk sucker ;) lol

Answer 7

Yes it can do. It;s not very well known about - hardly surprisingly - but yes it can. Milk is full of bacteria and it isn't always well sterilised before being sold, so it can contain pus. It also contains a cocktail of growth hormones (meant for cows, not humans) and antibiotics. Im allergic to it but I wouldnt touch it even if I wasn't, and I wouldn't give it to my 5 year old if I was paid.

Answer 8

yes, it's got more then pus in it, I don't drink milk because of it, I saw it on tv along time ago, no good cow milk, no good

Answer 9

whats pus

Answer 10

Go Organic